Special Interview 2 Former Soviet Jews Touring U.S. in Effort to Help Jewish Pocs

Bronya Veinger Chernoglaz’s five-year-old daughter Naomi cries frequently at their home on Kibbutz Saad in Israel’s Negev. She weeps because she wants her father who she does not know except through his photograph. Her father. David Chernoglaz, a 35-year-old agronomist, has been serving a five-year term on strict regime in the Soviet Union since he was found guilty in the June 1971 Kishinev trial.

Mrs. Chernoglaz and Aharon (Arkady) Shpilberg, a 36-year-old mechanical engineer who is now living in Israel after serving a three-year sentence in the Potma labor camp, are now in the United States for a month to seek help for Chernoglaz and other Jewish “Prisoners of Conscience.” Their nationwide trip is sponsored by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and their activities in New York are coordinated by the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry.

During an interview in the office of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, both Shpilberg and Mrs. Chernoglaz, speaking Hebrew, expressed grave concern about the fate of the prisoners because they said that the treatment of the POCs has become worse. They blamed this on an increase in anti-Semitism among the Russian people as well as Soviet authorities.

They hope during their American visit to speak to President Ford, Secretary of State Henry A, Kissinger and Sen. Henry M, Jackson as well as other American leaders and American Jews to urge that the compromise in which Soviet emigration restrictions will be eased in return for U.S. trade benefits and credits will include the freedom of the Jewish prisoners.

Mrs. Chernoglaz said she was “very afraid” for her husband because since last July he has been in the extremely harsh Vladimir Prison, an institution usually reserved for murderers. Two other Jewish prisoners have been sent to this prison, Yuri Vudka and Yakov Suslensky, Shpilberg said it is believed that some other Jews may be sent to the prison soon.

FAMILIES ARE BROKEN UP

Mrs. Chernoglaz and her daughter were allowed to emigrate to Israel shortly after Chernoglaz was sentenced. Shpilberg noted that this is true of many of the prisoners’ families. His wife Margarita and their daughters, Ruth, now 7 and Yoheved, 4, were, allowed to leave several months before his term was up. He noted that the prisoners want their families to leave even though they will be far away because they want them to achieve the dream of living in Israel.

However, there is no direct contact once the family leaves since the prisoner is not allowed to write to anyone outside the USSR, Mrs. Chernoglaz can only hear from her husband indirectly through his parents in Leningrad. The two emigrants noted that Jewish prisoners in the labor camps are treated worse than non-Jews. They are frequently called “Zhids” and other names by the guards and are denied their lawful rights such as receiving letters or visitors.

IN SAME CELLS WITH NAZIS

Shpilberg said what was especially galling for the Jews was that they were placed in the same cells with Nazis–Russians, Belorussian and Ukrainians–who had supported Nazi Germany in World War II. He said the Nazis are used to spy on the Jewish prisoners and frequently provoke incidents for which the Jewish prisoner is punished. Having Nazis as cell mates also serves to keep the Jews isolated since they want nothing to do with people who are “covered with the blood of Jews,” Shpilberg said. He noted that these are the people who helped murder the civilian population in World War II.

Shpilberg and his family now live in the absorption center at Nahariya where he works as a mechanical engineer. Both the Shpilberg family and the Chernoglaz family had struggled long to emigrate to Israel and both Shpilberg and Chernoglaz were arrested for their Zionist activities, the JTA was told. “We feel we are home,” Shpilberg said. “We have problems and Israel has problems, but they are our problems.” Mrs. Chernoglaz added: “We don’t have to worry that our children will be called Zhids.”